Robots are often used in the construction and architecture industries for fabrication purposes. Since the 1980s, mobile robots have been used to carry out assembly and construction tasks such as welding, painting, bricklaying and decommissioning. However, traditional ground construction robots such as gantry and industrial robots are often constrained by predefined working areas that hinder their scale of action, and that limit the size and scope of pieces of work they may act upon.
The use of flying robots for carrying out construction tasks is a solution that overcomes some of the main limitations of predefined working areas faced by ground robots. Some of the benefits that flying robots bring over traditional ground robots include:                the ability to operate dynamically in space, especially in areas difficult to access, such as those at high altitude;        the ability to work in co-operation with other flying robots to accelerate the construction process;        the ability to more precisely lay out and assemble materials for construction;        the ability to eliminate dangers for human workers, especially those involved in roof work or other high-altitude work, and the ability to safely navigate dangerous terrains.Current aerial robotic construction methods involve the building of structures using large bricks or magnetic beams with GPS-enabled flying robots, as illustrated by Kumar et al. at the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Lab.        
Clearly, whilst flying robots bring many benefits to the construction and related industries, there nonetheless remains significant scope for areas of development and improvement. For example, in the existing prior art, the flight path of the robot must generally be established using GPS-type techniques, or else the robot must be remotely controlled, and is therefore less autonomous. In addition, the range and type of structures that may be built are limited.
The present invention seeks provide new and improved uses of devices, especially robotic aerial devices, capable of sustained and controlled flight, that address these and other deficiencies encountered in the prior art.